Drone Pizza Delivery (yes really)

Dominos pizza is testing drone delivery .
They are of course unarmed ,and are actually faster than the delivery boy .

I'm not sure what to think ....

Domino’s Pizza hired a creative agency called T + Biscuits to test the feasibility of octocopter drones that deliver a hot, delicious pizza to your
doorstep.

Heavily branded as the DomiCopter, the current prototype can deliver two, large pizzas in about ten minutes within a four mile radius of the store.
While future versions could hypothetically use GPS coordinates to deliver the pie, the existing model is piloted from the ground by someone
experienced in drone flight.

The DomiCopter has eight spinning blades and includes the standard thermal insulation bag that’s carried around by Domino’s Pizza delivery
drivers. Developed by a company called Aerosight , this type of drone is primarily used for capturing broadcast quality video with cameras like the
Red Epic , Canon C300 or Sony PMW F3.

No flying permits are needed to operate the drone up to 126 meters off the ground, as detailed by NBC News

permission of the landowner is required. Other tools that can be used with the drone include on-board GPS, air pressure sensors and an electronic
compass.

Oh, but the most important question.... Can they do it world wide and offer a free one if they're late?

Seriously though, that's not a bad idea if they can make it work. I'm not sure how all the details would work out and how they prevent people just
robbing the drone like they do the real pizza guy from time to time. However, it's a very interesting premise, to be sure.

Next thing ya know, they'll be talking mail delivery by drone. Now that might actually be useful. They'd have a reason to cut down on the junk mail
when the weight crashes their toy.

My concern would be airspace issues. We can assume they wouldn't have an extremely high tech radar navigation system ,in regard to things around them
.
It flies too low,can hit a high truck or go into a small plane.
Dunno. I'm a bit tenuous so far. I also hate Dominoes pizza.
If they could say,deliver my fave Japanese food from over the bridge ,well then I might change my mind .

Lets imagine for minute you order a pizza it comes in on the drone, way cool right?
Your kids are outside playing this thing comes down, and lands what kid in all the world isn't going to go running to this thing?

Now you have a propeller stuck somewhere in a kid, that costs way more than a pizza being late.
Are it malfunctions, and drops a pizza in heavy traffic.

Next logical step to commerce online is to have near instant delivery.

Go online, order a product (just about anything portable, groceries, a carton of smokes, six pack, sex toys, Rx from the pharmacy) and have it show up
at your door in 30 minutes or less.

This service has been available for some time in the largest metropolitan areas where taxi's and messenger services provide a network or ready
delivery methods but profit margins are difficult and minimum orders in place mean you might be adding a lot of junk to your order just to pay a lot
more not to have to walk down the block yourself.

The real future in this is in robotics. Safe, reliable delivery via a robotic drone of some kind opens a future where you can click one minute and get
it the next (well the next 30 minutes to 1 hour) and not have to pay excessively for it a reality. The idea isn't new, city planners have looked at
service tunnels and dumb waiters, vacuum delivery pipes (like at the bank) and other solutions but the only cost effective model involves not paying
humans to do the delivering.

As with most technology drones will continue to increase in ability. By the time they get a large network set up and hire people who can fly drones
(which will be a lot of people) I bet drones will advance enough that we won't have to worry about major issues coming up. I think it would be
amazing to look up and see little drones flying around delivering stuff.

How long before we see the Dominoes killer drone chasing KFC drones and blowing them out of the sky. In fact, it could be a good way of protesting.
I think the civilians need to get into drones themselves.

I think it's workable enough...at first. So, about 400 feet ceiling on it? (give or take)... Well, that clears houses and power-lines well enough. The
problem I see here is really two-fold. First, you'll have the issue of mid-air collisions and conflicts when it's not just the Pizza guy anymore but
others do the same thing. After all, if Pizza works this way, you know it'll be a mad dash for all kinds of other things until accidents bring it all
to a halt and serious review.

Second...When it does get to be more than just one? I see radio frequency issues and conflicts. Accidental is bad enough and I imagine plenty of those
....but ever played with a CB radio on illegally high output power? (500-1kw Linear Amplifier for transmit power) It'll play havok with almost
anything within a short range and before the signal starts to spread for strength. Including.....remote control aircraft. (Don't ask....and if you
were flying remote control planes at Angels Stadium 25 years ago when they all crashed at once? SORRY!!)

I see a great idea in theory? ...but a whole range of techie issues that likely haven't been thought of yet, let alone solved for commercial use like
that. Still, great thread to show the future!

While a neat idea I have concerns about it that I haven't seen addressed yet. Wouldn't employing drones for pizza delivery put people out of
work? Jobs are scarce enough these days but when all else fails one can usually get a job as a delivery driver. One of my kids delivered for Domino's
her first year of college and she made enough to pay all of her living expenses and a few of her friends who haven't been able to find work in their
chosen fields after college are still delivering pizza until they can get something more suitable (one has a mechanical engineering degree). Delivery
jobs fill a need and if drones take over the jobs what will happen to these people?

I'm sure the trouble makers are watching this as well. Who's to stop
someone from building one, painting one and immitating one only it wont deliver pizza but a big kaboom?

What's to stop the unibomber from dressing up as a delivery person and dropping you off a bomb? Nothing really, beyond he has to know you're
ordering a pizza, have the bomb and costume ready and beat the delivery kid. Sounds kind of spy vs spy / road runner vs coyote to me though.

We already have the technology for these drones to be able to fly themselves with anti collision systems and terrain avoidance as complex as what will
be used in the next generation of avionics and air traffic control for full sized passenger jets. It can all fit into a very compact circuit board.

The kids who used to drive the pizzas around will monitor the drones and take over if one has a conflict (they will be programmed to stop and hover if
terrain / collision avoidance detects a situation the AI can't deal with) or perhaps the GPS, mapping and street view recognition isn't matching up,
no one answers the door or they say they didn't order a pizza (wrong address?).

This type of system WILL be approved but there will always have to be humans monitoring the drones and ready to take over and fly them manually if /
when needed. It's entirely probable that the number of people killed each year by pizza delivery will go down drastically or even become a null vs.
the number killed now by drivers.

This same technology is what will make flying cars a safe reality, I for one wish they would get moving on it. The really big issue here is working
out traffic lanes / congestion prevention. All the other issues have already been solved.

I'm sure the trouble makers are watching this as well. Who's to stop
someone from building one, painting one and immitating one only it wont deliver pizza but a big kaboom?

What's to stop the unibomber from dressing up as a delivery person and dropping you off a bomb? Nothing really, beyond he has to know you're ordering
a pizza, have the bomb and costume ready and beat the delivery kid. Sounds kind of spy vs spy / road runner vs coyote to me though.

I agree and
do not deny. However chances are he/she can be caught, blown away by their own device, injured, caught by authorities, tortured (TSA style anal
probing)

etc etc.

Why do you think militaries around the world are investing in UAV/UVAC/UAVS/UA/RPV/RPA/ROV etc etc

Advantage to the bad guys here is to remain anonymous/hidden/far from the crime scene/safety/cost effective?? etc etc. He/She could be sitting miles
away controlling the drone and thus very less chances of getting caught in the act. How can you forget the Boston Tragedy and the two chechen
brothers?

It's funny, the drive to put drones in high orbits over the US really wasn't going anywhere or had much support until a new optics system was
developed that allows a single drone to watch and actively track every moving object in a very, very large piece of terrain. (A handful of drones can
overwatch and entire State or even segment of the Nation now).

Suddenly it became practical. Managing one or two drones in a dedicated lane of the sky is actually very simple vs. the prior concept requiring dozens
of them.

By clearing the red tape allowing the various law enforcement agencies to fly drones over America they also cleared the way for private enterprise to
do the same. There's even a dedicated team of people at the FAA who do nothing but work with parties who want to fly drones over Americans.

It really doesn't seem much to be worried about in terms of the private sector in applications like this. A quad copter drone wouldn't kill you even
if it rammed you at full speed. Adding less than 10 pounds or so to it won't change that. The benefits to society are numerous in this case. A great
deal of wasted energy can be saved by cars not carrying a single person to a close destination (the drones use electric engines) and the business
model is almost endless. Convenience stores could keep a small fleet and make close deliveries for a few pennies per item -and- still make a profit.

Originally posted by ecoparity
It really doesn't seem much to be worried about in terms of the private sector in applications like this. A quad copter drone wouldn't kill you even
if it rammed you at full speed. Adding less than 10 pounds or so to it won't change that. The benefits to society are numerous in this case. A great
deal of wasted energy can be saved by cars not carrying a single person to a close destination (the drones use electric engines) and the business
model is almost endless. Convenience stores could keep a small fleet and make close deliveries for a few pennies per item -and- still make a profit.

True and Agreed. Only if we were living in a ideal world. The question of Liability has always been a tedious and costly one in the US. 10
pounds of explosive can do much more damage than a 10 pounds box of pizzas IMO. There's this unknown factor. If not the terrorist/extremists, it
can be anyone from a local militia ro a prankster with RC plane can do the same.

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